4 Arab Countries Cut Ties With Qatar

#51
#51
Well.

[twitter]https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/872856514695974912[/twitter]
 
#52
#52
So the President didn't know there were 11,000 U.S. troops stationed in Qatar until he was briefed this morning.
 
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#55
#55
carlos86 said:
So the President didn't know there were 11,000 U.S. troops stationed in Qatar until he was briefed this morning.
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Given his recent tweets, it is easy to believe that Trump didn't know that we had an air base in Qatar before firmly taking Saudi Arabia's side. It put the Pentagon in a very awkward position to say the least. The Pentagon has released this statement: "Qatar has an enduring commitment to regional security."

Trump is ignorant in such matters but that doesn't keep him from popping off on Twitter and leaving it to others to clean up whatever mess is left behind. He is in over his head.
 
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#57
#57
In another brilliant move demonstrating his foreign policy expertise, Donald Trump directly contradicted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier today. Speaking in his press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and just after Tillerson had spoken earlier today, Trump touted the recent blockade of Qatar by neighboring countries as a success. "The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,". Then Trump continued, "Nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over it's behavior. So we had a decision to make. Do we take the easy road, or do we finally take a hard but necessary action? We have to stop the funding of terrorism."

However, earlier today, Tillerson had said just the opposite, urging an end to the blockade. "We call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to ease the blockade against Qatar," Tillerson said, just before attending Trump's press conference where he would be directly contradicted. Tillerson further added that, "There are humanitarian consequences to this blockade... The blockade is also impairing U.S. and other international business activities in the region and has created a hardship on the people of Qatar and the people whose livelihoods depend on commerce with Qatar. The blockade is hindering U.S. military actions in the region and the campaign against ISIS."

These two conflicting statements between President Trump and his Secretary of State (which were given in mere moments of each other), clearly demonstrate a complete lack of coordination within the Trump administration. The U.S. obviously has a very complicated relationship with Qatar which Trump doesn't understand; nor does he seem the least bit interested in learning about. He was reportedly unaware the United States even had a large air base in Qatar. Trump is incredibly ignorant and oblivious to foreign policy for someone who has already served as President for over 4 months... and he is running a disorganized and unprofessional administration. The worst part about this? He does not even appear to care.
 
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#58
#58
BowlBrother85 said:
These two conflicting statements between President Trump and his Secretary of State (which were given in mere moments of each other), clearly demonstrate a complete lack of coordination within the Trump administration. The U.S. obviously has a very complicated relationship with Qatar which Trump doesn't understand; nor does he seem the least bit interested in learning about. He was reportedly unaware the United States even had a large air base in Qatar. Trump is incredibly ignorant and oblivious to foreign policy for someone who has already served as President for over 4 months... and he is running a disorganized and unprofessional administration. The worst part about this? He does not even appear to care.
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That is the understatement of the week right there... Is it any surprise that we would have conflicting messages coming out of the White House?
 
#59
#59
Rasputin_Vol said:
That is the understatement of the week right there... Is it any surprise that we would have conflicting messages coming out of the White House?
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Within less than an hour of each other???? Yes... it shouldn't happen. Doesn't Trump speak to his own Secretary of State? There is zero coordination and it looks ridiculous.
 
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#60
#60
BowlBrother85 said:
Within less than an hour of each other???? Yes... it shouldn't happen. Doesn't Trump speak to his own Secretary of State? There is zero coordination and it looks ridiculous.
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When it comes to the Middle East, this doesn't surprise me at all. Our entire relationship status with everyone over there is "complicated"...
 
#61
#61
Rasputin_Vol said:
When it comes to the Middle East, this doesn't surprise me at all. Our entire relationship status with everyone over there is "complicated"...
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These contradicting statements are more of a reflection of Trump's relationship (or lack thereof) with his Secretary of State. It is highly unusual to see a President walk over his chief diplomat like this (and in the same afternoon). I can imagine what was going through Tillerson's mind while he was listening to that speech. Maybe something like: "WTF?... Doesn't what I just said mean s***?!?!"
 
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#62
#62
BowlBrother85 said:
These contradicting statements are more of a reflection of Trump's relationship (or lack thereof) with his Secretary of State. It is highly unusual to see a President walk over his chief diplomat like this (and in the same afternoon). I can imagine what was going through Tillerson's mind while he was listening to that speech. Maybe something like: "WTF?... Doesn't what I just said mean s***?!?!"
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You must not have paid attention in the last 2 years of Obama's presidency. The press conferences with Jen Psaki and Maria Harf were total train wrecks and they were often put in positions where they either contradicted the president or poorly defended the president's position.

Relax...
 
#63
#63
What is happening?

[twitter]https://twitter.com/Amb_AlThani/status/873335226549850114[/twitter]
 
#64
#64
Velo Vol said:
What is happening?

[twitter]https://twitter.com/Amb_AlThani/status/873335226549850114[/twitter]
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Qatar's Ambassador to the U.S. thinks that Trump is being manipulated by Saudi Arabia. He is probably correct in that belief. Trump is a neophyte when it comes to foreign policy (especially to matters related to the Middle East). His inexperience is proving costly... Trump needs to get on the same page as Tillerson.
 
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#65
#65
Saudi calling out another country for funding terrorism strikes me as suspiciously opportunistic.
 
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#66
#66
Velo Vol said:
Saudi calling out another country for funding terrorism strikes me as suspiciously opportunistic.
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Indeed. Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide. While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia takes the threat of terrorism within their own country very seriously, Saudi officials have not treated terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority. Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Hamas which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources. It is also worth noting that 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

Of course, all of that would likely be news to Trump, who is blissfully ignorant. Saudi Arabia undoubtedly stroked his ego during his visit last month and have played him like a violin.
 
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#68
#68
BowlBrother85 said:
Indeed. Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide. While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia takes the threat of terrorism within their own country very seriously, Saudi officials have not treated terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority. Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Hamas which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources. It is also worth noting that 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

Of course, all of that would likely be news to Trump, who is blissfully ignorant. Saudi Arabia undoubtedly stroked his ego during his visit last month and have played him like a violin.
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And speaking of Hamas, I also found it odd that allegations were made that Iran and Qatar were supporting Hamas. Why would Iran be involved in supporting a Sunni group?
 
#69
#69
Rasputin_Vol said:
And speaking of Hamas, I also found it odd that allegations were made that Iran and Qatar were supporting Hamas. Why would Iran be involved in supporting a Sunni group?
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Iran was involved in supporting Sunni insurgents in Iraqi during our occupation.
 
#70
#70
Grand Vol said:
Iran was involved in supporting Sunni insurgents in Iraqi during our occupation.
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If true, than further proof we need to get out of there. If that is the case, then we now have Qatar, Turkey, Iran and the US arming two or more factions in the region at any given time.
 
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#71
#71
The big players in the ME want a holy war, and they want to get the world involved to make it happen. These are dangerous times.
 
#74
#74
Rasputin_Vol said:
Got a link or some names of these groups? If they did support a Sunni group, it was a one off event and not anything widespread in Iraq. In other words, statistically insignificant.
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Several articles were written about in during the occupation as well as some Wikileaks documents that supported what I'm saying. And several posters on here can verify.

I won't say "trust me" as you likely won't, but I know what I saw and was told while I was there.
 
#75
#75
Grand Vol said:
Several articles were written about in during the occupation as well as some Wikileaks documents that supported what I'm saying. And several posters on here can verify.

I won't say "trust me" as you likely won't, but I know what I saw and was told while I was there.
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And I stand by what I said. If they Iran did happen to support a Sunni group it was an anomaly, not a widespread affair. There's exceptions to every rule, but I think it would be safe to say that well over 90% of Iran's foreign support would go to Shiites, and not Sunnis.

Lets not overblow any alleged support (assuming it is true) in Iraq or anywhere else as a common occurrence. That would be false.
 
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